On the Contradiction Between Faith and Love

In the section "The Contradiction Between Faith and Love" and the beginning of the "Concluding Application" of his Essence of Christianity, Feuerbach illustrates the bad consequences that arise from placing more importance in faith in God than in a universal love of man. His moral critique of Christianity, or even religion in general, stems from what he considers a contradiction in the ideas of "love" and "faith."

In order to grasp how Feuerbach argues that faith has bad consequences, it is first important to understand this contradiction. Feuerbach believes that "there is no qualitative or essential distinction whatever between God and man" (p 197). He believes Faith creates a distinction between man and God whereas Love acknowledges the relation of the divine to human nature. "Love identifies man with God and God with man, consequently it identifies man with man; faith separates God from man, consequently it separates man from man" (p 247). Feuerbach makes a further distinction between the essence of religion and the form of religion. He believes that the essence of religion is this identity of the divine with the human, and that the "hidden essence of religion, is Love" (p 247). He describes the form of religion as the perversion of this love, created by a faith in God.

Feuerbach argues that this contradiction intrinsic to faith has numerous bad consequences. These bad consequences result from his belief that faith separates itself from morality, and therefore love. "So far as God is regarded as separate from man, as an individual being, so far are duties to God separated from duties to man: --faith is, in religious sentiment, separated from morality, from love" (p 260).

One of the consequences of this separation is believers' intolerance of people who do not believe. He states that "Faith is in its nature exclusive"(p 248) and that it "makes man partial and narrow" (p 249). This intolerance and narrow mindedness follows from the fact that if you are not for God you are against him. "Tolerance on its part would be intolerance towards God" (p 256). He addresses the argument that faith is not prejudiced because it is written in the bible to "judge not, that ye be not judged," suggesting that faith leaves judgement to God. He does not find this to be a valid argument because it still separates man into two distinct groups, those who will attain salvation and those who will not. "Faith knows already whom God will place on the right, and whom on the left" (p 255).

Feuerbach believes that the intolerance which faith creates between believers and non-believers prevents believers from seeing the goodness in some activities of the non-believer. "Faith is blind to what there is of goodness and truth lying at the foundation of heathen worship; it sees everything which does not do homage to its God…only the work of the devil" (p 256). He considers this a close minded view which is by no means compatible with the idea of human compassion and love, something he considers deep-seated in human nature. "Faith is the opposite of love. Love recognizes virtue even in sin, truth in error" (p 257). Therefore, rather than making decisions about non-believers based on reason and compassion, believers use their prejudice and narrow worldview to condemn them. "To believe, is synonymous with goodness; not to believe, with wickedness. Faith, narrow and prejudiced, refers all unbelief to the moral disposition" (p 252).

Feuerbach not only believes that faith is hurtful because of the intolerance with which believers regard nonbelievers, but also because of the way it makes believers see themselves. He argues that "faith gives man a peculiar sense of his own dignity and importance. The believer finds himself distinguished above other men" (p 249). He believes this inflated sense of self worth only heightens the prejudice and hatred with which believers regard non-believers and inevitably causes oppression. "Faith necessarily passes into hatred, hatred into persecution" (p 260).

Perhaps the most compelling critique that Feuerbach has with religious faith is that it does not give value to good actions, only to faith itself. "Faith is thus expressly distinguished from good works; faith alone avails before God, not good works; faith alone is the cause of salvation, not virtue;… faith alone has religious significance, divine authority-and not morality" (p 260). Feuerbach believes that the oppression and persecution of non-believers are examples of how believers put more emphasis on faith than on a love of their fellow man. Faith separates itself from all things and claims it to be the good from which all other good things stem. "Faith absolves from everything; for, strictly considered, it is the sole subjective good in man" (p 261). Feuerbach does not approve of this mentality because it places faith in God as the highest good, above morality and love.

Hume, in the Natural History of Religion, parallels many of the arguments Feuerbach makes in this work. Hume agrees that religion has bad consequences and addresses the issue of placing God above morality when he states that "the Gods have maxims of justice peculiar to themselves" (p 69). He agrees with Feuerbach that rather than allow morals to come from God, it is important for them to originate from mans' understanding of his place in nature. "Nothing can preserve the genuine principles of morals in our judgement of human conduct, but the absolute necessity of these principles to the existence of society" (p 68). Hume also agrees with Feuerbach that faith in the unity of God, as a separate entity from human nature, leads inevitably to intolerance and persecution. Hume describes it in the context of different religious sects with different religious practices and beliefs. "For as each sect is positive that its own faith and worship are entirely acceptable to the deity, and as no one can conceive, that the same being should be pleased with different and opposite rites and principles; the several sects fall naturally into animosity" (p 49).

Feuerbach not only provides a detailed description of the bad consequences that result from placing more importance on faith than on love, but augments this moral critique with a suggestion for what we as humans must do to improve this onerous situation. He believes that "the necessary turning point of history" will be when we are able to break free from the binds of faith and experience love in its ultimate freedom. In order to do this we must realize that God is merely a projection of our own species, and that "man can and should raise himself only above the limits of his individuality, and not above the laws, the positive essential conditions of his species" (p 270). Further, man must realize "that there is no other essence which man can think, dream of, imagine, feel, believe in, wish for, love and adore as the absolute, than the essence of human nature itself" (p 270). Once we understand this essence, the essence of human nature, we will be free.